


Run to your mommy

by JungleKarmaPippa



Category: Power Rangers Jungle Fury
Genre: Gen, fluff and cheese, head canon, maybe au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-20
Updated: 2017-07-20
Packaged: 2018-12-04 20:05:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11562375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JungleKarmaPippa/pseuds/JungleKarmaPippa
Summary: The Power Rangers are feeling a little down from losing one too many fights, so their master sends them to the one place their spirits can be healed.He didn't expect to have to go too.





	Run to your mommy

The Power Rangers crashed almost completely limp against the wall.

With a surprisingly synchronized group groan, they went through it and landed on the floor.

“You pests aren’t even worth my time!” The monster yelled. “Stay out of my way, losers!” And with that, he went away.

The Power Rangers got back on their feet with great difficulty.

“He’s gone!” Theo let this teammates know, despite it being obvious.

“We need to stop him!” Lily added, also pointing out the obvious.

“We didn’t even scratch him!” Added Dom to the festival of obviousness.

“What do we do now?” Casey asked RJ.

The violet ranger shook his head, looking down. “Let’s go home, we need to regroup.”

Once back in the loft, RJ gave each of them an ice pack and pressed his own against his ribs. He sat on his chair with a grimace, looking at the others: nothing but sad faces and broken spirits there.

Their defeat hadn’t only been hard on their bodies, it had also had an impact on their minds. They sat on the puffs around him, completely silent, except for the occasional hiss of pain.

“They keep getting stronger and we don’t!” Casey almost yelled desperately.

“Case,” RJ started, but realized he had nothing to tell him, so he just sighed.

“He’s right,” Theo added. “It’s like nothing we do gets us on their level! We even have the two of you on our side now! How are we supposed to defeat Dai Shi by ourselves if we can’t defeat a Rin Shi with your help?!”

“That wasn’t a Rin Shi,” Lily mumbled. “It was a Phantom Beast General.”

Bless her, always looking at the bright side and refusing to sink in the pity pit.

Dom looked at RJ. “Hey, man,” he started. RJ took a deep breath and tried to keep his face as neutral as possible. “It’s not that you’re not doing your part…”

The other three immediately looked at RJ with concerned faces. Not for a moment had any of them considered they might be hurting his feelings with their comments. The master released his breath through his nose and pursed his lips, but said nothing.

“RJ, we didn’t mean to–”

“Yeah, it’s not that you’re not–”

“You’re a great master–”

RJ raised a hand to quiet them. “I know. You are all doing your part too. You all work very hard.”

“You work hard too,” Casey insisted. “We wouldn’t be here anymore if not for you.”

RJ raised two fingers again, nodding without comment. 

The truth was he was feeling his own spirit crushed. He felt so inadequate as a master at the moment, seeing how his students were losing the one battle he was supposed to be training them for. He wouldn’t admit it to their faces, but he felt he was failing terribly as their master.

“We don’t have time to mop about,” Casey said, his frustration showing in every word. “We need to do something!" He looked at his master. "What should we do?”

“For now, lick our wounds,” RJ whispered so softly it was hard to hear him.

“Lick our wounds? We are the protectors of humankind, RJ, it’s not like we can run to our mommies!” Casey insisted.

Theo, Lily and Dom nodded in agreement of their leader. RJ, however, pursed his lips again, in a clear thinking expression.

“That’s a great idea, Casey.”

“WHAT?”

“Do just that. Run to your mommies!”

He looked around at the shocked faces of the three Chosen Protectors, and the uncomfortable expression in Dom’s face, in response to his suggestion. He understood Dom’s attitude, he didn’t feel exactly like running to his own mother either, but it may just be the soul-soothing thing they needed.

Well, except for Dom.

And him.

But it was bound to work for the other three.

“Just to be sure, did you just instruct me to run home… to my mom?” Casey asked him.

“To your mommy, yes.”

“Ok, let’s suppose we actually agree to do that–”

“Agree?” RJ repeated with a chuckle. “It’s an instruction from your master.”

“You ACTUALLY expect us to run to our mothers?!” Casey asked him.

“Ok, let’s leave something clear here,” RJ started, sitting as straight as he could with his bruised ribs. “I may not be very good at it, but I am your master.”

Lily opened her mouth to say something but Casey interrupted her: “You realize what you’re saying, right?”

“If the instruction to go home and spend the afternoon with your mothers came from Master Mao, would you be second guessing it?” RJ asked all of them.

Lily, Theo and Dom shook their heads ever so slightly. Casey looked around, shocked.

“Are you all serious?!” He asked angrily.

“Casey, I may not wear the robes or play the part, but I AM a Pai Zhua master,” RJ said, showing Casey his stripes. “And you are my students,” Casey opened his mouth to interrupt him again, but Lily grabbed his wrist and he stayed quiet. “And I instructed you to go home and talk to your mothers.”

The other four just sat there, looking uncomfortable.

“Did I stutter?” RJ asked irritated, he was on the verge of losing his temper too and they weren’t helping. “Why are you still here? Go!”

The three Protectors got on their feet promptly and disappeared in the direction of their bedrooms. RJ closed his eyes, grimaced and took a deep breath, trying to regain his calm attitude.

“RJ, man,” Dom started. RJ opened his eyes, slightly shocked that he was still there. “I’m sorry I haven’t been very… respectful to you as a master but–”

“You’re not my student, Dom. You’re my friend.”

“I’m still a Pai Zhua student and you are a master. It’s just hard for me to see you as a figure of authority, when I left, we were equals and–”

“Dom, you are not my student.”

“I am now.” Dom got up and walked up to RJ’s chair, looking at the floor. “I… I can’t go home to my mother because–”

“I know Dom.”

“What do you want me to do, then?”

“Call her.”

“She will hang up, RJ.”

“Call again.”

“I have written to her, you know? Sent her postcards. She has never replied. I think she doesn’t want to know anything about me anymore.”

“Dom, she’s your mother," RJ said with a soft voice, putting his hand on his friend's shoulder. "She loves you, that’s the only certainty you’ll have in your life.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Just call her.”

“What about you?” Dom asked.

“I don’t have to run to my mommy,” RJ said with a shrug. “Nobody ordered me to,” he said, still in a somber mood. Dom walked towards his own room, leaving the wolf master to lick his emotional wounds in his chair.

Casey walked out of his room a minute later, wearing normal clothes. He saw RJ was still sitting in his chair, still wearing his training gear. He walked up to the chair and stood next to RJ, tapping his foot. RJ looked up to see the red ranger was crossed-armed and scowling.

“Can I help you?” He asked, looking away.

“You told me I’m the leader of this team, right?”

“Yes.”

“And you are a part of this team, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” RJ answered hesitantly.

“Well, then, as your leader, I instruct you to run to your mother.”

“Casey–”

“You are my master and you gave me an instruction. I will obey you, even if I don’t see the point. As your leader, I’m instructing you to go to your mother too.”

“Casey, I don’t–”

“Did you or did you not make me the leader of this team?”

RJ took another deep breath and swallowed hard. “Whatever you say,” he said, getting up. “Leader.”

He walked past Lily in the direction of his bedroom.

Lily walked towards Casey and put a hand on his shoulder. “Casey, you need to stop doing that.”

“Doing what?”

“He feels bad enough,” Lily said. “Without you challenging him every chance you get.”

Casey looked at her and just shook his head, walking towards the door. He left without another word.

Theo and Lily left shortly after him. 

A few minutes later, RJ walked out of his bedroom, and found Dom standing by the phone, swallowing hard and clenching and releasing his fists, looking at the device as if it were about to jump up and bite him.

“Dom,” RJ called. Dom looked up and saw RJ was wearing his best clothes. His very best clothes, and had picked his hair back in a ponytail. 

He sniffed. “Are you wearing cologne?” He asked.

“Perfume,” RJ whispered, obviously embarrassed. “Dom, I know this is a hard task to fulfill, you don’t have to do it, you are not my student.”

“No, it’s alright. I… I need to.”

“Well, if you decide to do it, you can sit on my chair if you want to,” RJ offered. “Just this once.”

Dom smiled at him and sat on the green chair. “I could get used to sitting here!”

“Just this once!” RJ called from the door and closed it behind him.

He got in his delivery jeep and drove north, to the part of town where the richest of the rich lived in Ocean Bluff.

He hadn’t been in that area in a long time, and it had barely changed since he last had seen it. The same exaggerated driveways, the same rows of trees lining the streets, the same peeks at the large mansions built in the middle of huge estates.

He encountered a change he wasn’t expecting when he drove up to his parents’ estate. It had a black gate that completely blocked the view of the grounds and a security guard that weren’t there the last time he had been there.

“Can I help you, sir?” The guard asked, approaching RJ’s jeep.

 _‘Yes, I grew up in this house and I’m here to talk to my mother who probably has spent the last seven years regretting the day she adopted me. Please let me in.’_ RJ answered mentally.

“I’m here to see Maura James,” he told the guard out loud, trying to smile but not looking at him.

“Is she expecting you?”

_‘Not in a million years.’_

“No, I don’t have an appointment,” he told the guard. “I’m here hoping she can spare me a few minutes.”

“What’s your name?”

“Robert.”

“Robert what, sir?”

“Just tell her Robert is here to see her,” RJ told the man, finally looking at him.

The guard went back to his post and talked on the phone for a few seconds. He hung up, threw RJ a suspicious look and opened the gate.

_‘You must be new.’_

He drove all the way to the house and parked in the driveway. He put his keys in his back pocket and, as he was walking up to the door, it opened and she walked out.

She was just like he remembered her: elegant and beautiful.

His mother.

His only mother.

“Robert?” She asked him as he approached her.

“Surprise?” He told her, stopping a couple of feet from her.

Much to HIS surprise, Maura James took the few steps that separated them and hugged him as tight as she could.

“My boy! My baby! You’re home!” She told him, kissing him on the cheeks and the forehead repeatedly. “You’re here! You’re really here!”

“Eh, mom?” RJ asked, confused. He had been expecting her to tell him to leave and never come back.

“I've missed you so much!” She told him and kissed him on the forehead again.

“Mom?” RJ asked again, still surprised by the warm welcome.

“Do you need anything?” She asked him. There it was: the unavoidable offer of money. “Tea? Water? A place to stay?”

RJ looked at her as if she were a victim of the body snatchers. “Mom, are you alright?” He asked, just to make sure she was the right woman. The lack of offers of money was disturbing him slightly, as well as all the kisses.

“Yes! Yes! Of course!” She assured him, but she was crying.

“You’re crying–”

“Happy tears, baby,” she told him with a smile. She kissed him on the cheek again. “Let’s go to the backyard. You will love what we did to it!”

He followed her through the mansion, the house he had grown up in> the same kitchen he used to roam, pestering the chef to teach him how to cook. The same living room where he sat faking smiles while all of his mother’s friends commented how good looking and well behaved he was. The same music room where he had learned to play the piano and the guitar. The hallways he used to run up and down, playing with his ball inside the house much to the dismay of his many nannies.

His childhood home.

The backyard was different though and he did like it very much. They had redone the pool and had planted a lot of trees. It was not the same backyard where his mother held the neverending tea parties where she paraded him around like her favorite public relations tool.

“Wow…” He whispered.

“Yes, it’s lovely, isn’t it?” She told him. “It makes the tea parties harder to hold but at the same time, so much fresher in the summer.”

“You still hold those?”

“Of course, it’s good to have the friends over every now and then. Everybody asked about you for a while but then they understood we just–” she shut her mouth and licked her lips, the same he did when he was nervous.

He smiled. “Didn’t want to talk about it.” He told her.

“Well, it wasn’t exactly a fun topic, was it? Our only son leaving us because he didn’t feel loved enough.”

RJ looked at her and realized he had been wrong when he had first seen her. She wasn’t the same. She looked the same, but she had changed a lot since he had last talked to her. He liked this new Maura.

“Mom, I didn’t–”

“Yes, you did. You felt unloved and forgotten, like an old toy. I heard you say I hadn’t adopted you, I had purchased you.”

“Those were the meaningless words of an angry teenager, mom.”

“No,” she took his hand and kissed it. “Those were the honest words of a deeply hurt boy,” she caressed his cheek. “A hurt boy who wasn’t all that wrong.”

“Mom, you and dad loved me, I know that.”

“We still do.”

“I know. Haven’t you talked to dad lately?”

“He mentioned he was back in touch with you,” she said, letting go of his hand. “I must admit I had never felt so jealous in my entire life.”

“I didn’t look for him–”

“I know. It had to do with the kung fu thing,” she dismissed with a hand gesture. “But you got in touch with him. You saved his life.”

“Well, he’s my father. I would have saved you if I had had the chance.”

She smiled at him and he smiled back. This time, it was him who licked his lips.

She walked to the patio furniture and sat on the couch. He sat next to her, looking at the sun glistening on the pool water.

“So, did you find her?” She asked after a short silence.

“Find who?”

“Your mother,” she said, also looking fixedly at the water. “Isn’t that why you left? To find your real parents?”

RJ shook his head. “Mom, I only have two parents,” he turned to look at her and took her hand in both of his. “Maura and Albert James are my parents, I don’t have any other parents.”

“Well, there’s your–”

RJ took her hand and kissed it. “I don’t have any other parents,” he repeated. “You are my only mother and dad is my only father. I never had the intention of finding the woman who made me a heroin addict before I was born and then abandoned me in a hospital. She’s not my mother in any way. You, the woman who heard me cry over all the other noises in that ER, the woman who moved Heaven and Earth to give me a chance in life, YOU are my mother.”

Her eyes had welled up and he hugged her tightly.

“I left to find myself, mom, who I was without the last name, the connections, the fortune,” he let go of her and looked into her eyes. “I left to find who Robert was, once all those things were gone.”

“Your father said you graduated from college but you never touched your trust fund–”

“I got a scholarship, mom, my grades were perfect.” He smiled at her. "You made sure of that."

“Where have you been living? Working? What have you been eating?” She looked flustered and talked fast.

He put his hand on her shoulder. “I found myself a great place to live. I own a pizza parlor and I eat food, like everybody else.”

She ran her fingers through his hair. “This is…” She let her fingers slide over his stubble.

“It’s Robert, once everything else is gone.”

“You are not fooling me,” She told him, running her hand over his shirt. “This isn’t who you are, you don’t wear this shirt often.”

“No,” he admitted with a chuckle.

“Or those pants.”

“Nope.”

She stared at him for a while and he looked down, blushing slightly.

“Why are you here, Robert?” She asked point blank, after a few seconds.

He took a moment to choose the words of his answer. “I had a terrible few years and I just wanted to run to my mommy in hopes she can kiss the terrible things away.” He shrugged and she laughed.

“Is that so?”

“Yes.”

“Well, then, why don’t you put your head on my lap like you used to and tell me everything about it?”

“You promise you won’t be upset?”

“It depends on what you have to tell me.”

“Promise me.”

“Fine, I promise.”

RJ sat on the floor and put his head on her lap. She took off his hairband and ran her fingers through his hair. He told her everything he could think of about his life since he had walked out of the mansion with nothing but a backpack full of clothes. He told her about the time he spent in college, the training to be a master and then to be the Chosen Protectors’ master, the setting up the restaurant and how hard he had had to work to make it take off. He told her about his students and how he was now training Casey with his father.

She kept stroking his hair, asking questions to make him keep going when he stopped.

He finally told her about the last battle and the last conversation he had had with his students.

“Do you think I’m a terrible master?” He asked her, looking up at her.

“No.”

“Mom.”

“Well, fine, there’s room for improvement since you don’t seem to be meeting your goals, but I’m sure you’ll figure it out, you’re very smart.”

“I don’t want to push too hard but–”

“Perhaps the worst you can do is not push hard enough, dear.”

She had lemonade brought to them and RJ just sat there, feeling his mother caressing his hair until he felt everything was going to be alright. 

It was night when he returned to his loft and he felt a lot better. It had been a great idea to go and talk to his mother. He felt like the weight had been lifted off his shoulders and a wound on his heart had definitely healed.

He opened the door to the loft and found the other four talking animatedly.

“There he is!” Lily said when he walked in. She hugged him. “Thank you! That was a great idea! I didn’t know I missed my mom so much!”

“Yeah, it was a good plan,” Theo said.

“You really know what you’re doing,” Casey told him with a smile. “I’m sorry if I came off as defiant or disrespectful, I didn’t mean to.”

RJ smiled. “Thank you, Casey” he said with a nod. “I hadn’t noticed how much I needed to see my mom again.”

“You went to see your mother too?” Theo asked in absolute disbelief.

“I was ordered to,” RJ pointed at Casey. “By my leader.”

Dom approached RJ and hugged him. It took him all but two seconds to start sobbing on the master's shoulder. RJ hugged him back but said nothing.

“She didn’t hang up,” Dom told him, his voice choked. “She was happy to hear from me.”

“I told you.”

“How did it go for you?” Dom asked.

“She was surprisingly very happy to see me too.” RJ let go off Dom and rolled up his sleeves mechanically. “Now that we are all in better spirits, we need to come up with a plan to stop that Phantom Beast once and for all.”

“Yeah!” The other yelled as one.

“We can do it, guys!” Lily said. “I know we can!”

“Yeah, we are the Chosen Protectors!” Theo said.

“No,” Casey said, his eyes moving from RJ to Dom and back. “We are the Power Rangers.”


End file.
